Healthcare assistants to strike for five days

The latest walkout will start on Monday morning

Healthcare assistants on Teesside will strike for the third time in three months in an ongoing row over pay.

Hundreds of workers at North Tees and Hartlepool, and South Tees hospitals NHS foundation trusts, will walk out for five days from 08:00 BST on Monday.

Unison said workers were not "backing down" and were "determined to get what they deserve".

In a joint statement, the trusts said the role healthcare assistants played was "much valued by our colleagues and patients".

The dispute is over securing a back pay settlement and moving staff to a wage band that reflects their tasks more "accurately", the union said.

It said most healthcare assistants had "routinely" undertaken clinical tasks outside their job band, including taking blood, performing electrocardiogram tests and inserting cannulas.

Band 2 healthcare assistants "should only be providing" personal care to patients, such as bathing and feeding, it added.

The two trusts have offered to move them to a higher salary band, as well as offering back pay as far back as July 2021, when the national job profile for the clinical support worker role changed.

However, Unison wants staff to receive their pay back dated from July 2019.

The latest strike follows a 72-hour walkout in April and a 24-hour walk in March.

Unison Northern regional secretary Clare Williams said staff were being "forced into this unavoidable strike action because the trust won’t negotiate".

"Put simply, hundreds of low-paid workers across Teesside, mainly women, are being denied money they’re owed," she said.

"Staff feel hurt that their employers have little interest settling this dispute."

The trusts have advised patients to attend any appointments as usual, unless they are contacted to reschedule.

"Urgent and emergency care will be prioritised to ensure those in life-threatening emergencies can receive the best possible care," a statement added.